Little Miss Potter
by Giola
Summary: It started out as something we did every summer, to amuse ourselves.     But now, I'm bringing it to Hogwarts. Cassidy and I have a pact. We're going to bring the games with us for 7th year.   Be prepared for absolute and total chaos.
1. Pranking 101

"I hate waiting!" I exclaimed, to no one in particular.

They were all ignoring my little tantrum.

"I just want to _know_ already!" I sighed in frustration.

Mum bustled around the kitchen, getting dinner ready, well practiced in the art of ignoring me. Dad was in the living room, also blocking me out.

I turned to Al, as he comes down the stairs.

"Al, make the letter _come_ already!"I whined.

He rolled his eyes at me, brushing past me to get to the fridge. As he opened it, he said

"Lil, it'll come eventually. You're a shoo-in for Captain anyway; it's in your blood." He turned around to face me, leaning against the fridge, opening a butterbeer.

"But what if I _don't _get it? I'll be the disappointment of the family!" My voice is shrill with anxiety.

Al sighs.

"Lil, think about it. Kelsey and Callum are Prefects, they can't get it. Amber's not really the leading type. Daniel never shows up to practice, so he's unreliable. That leaves…you, Hugo and Max. Hugo's a loner, no offense to him, but he is. He has no hope. Max is unbelievably irrating, if he gets it the team would hex him within a week. It will _definitely _be you." He smiled at me, patting my shoulder as he left the room.

I huffed. He's right, in a way. But the fact that I'm a shoo-in only makes it worse if I _don't _get it. I don't think I could cope with the let down.

"Lil?" Dom calls my name down the stairs.

"What?" I yell back, slightly too sharply, but, well, I was frustrated. And anxious. And nervous. And worried.

"Come up here! The boys want to start a game!" Comes the reply.

Groaning, I heave my self up the stairs, onto the second landing. Dom's waiting for me, her face all eager.

"Come on!" She says, practically dragging me into James' room by the wrist.

Everyone's here. Rose is sitting on a couch (I swear that wasn't there earlier, but I like it! Might steal it for my room…) next to Scorpius, and they are completelly engrossed in eachother. I still can't _believe_ they are dating, but I guess you never can tell.

Al and James are arguing over something, standing on either side of James' bed, yelling across it. Louis is chatting to Lucy, sitting on the bed, completely oblivious to the argument going on over their heads. Hugo is slouching against the wall, ignoring everyone like usual. Roxy is stretched out of the floor, sitting next to Fred. They're clearly waiting for us all to get our act together and join them in a circle for a truth or dare round.

Before I go on, I probably should explain the games a little bit.

They started the summer before 2nd year. There are three types of 'games', a task, truth or dare and, my personal favourite, pranks. Basically, anyone Hogwarts age in our family can play, and friends of the family are invited. You get scored, whoever has the most points at the end of summer wins the Weasel Pot (this massive, ugly black pot that sits in the backyard most of they year. Every winner gets their name ingraved magically).

Why create this elaborate games system, you may ask? Well, the boys were bored. That's pretty much it. This is their way of amusing themselves. Of course, they're all too old to participate now, but they can still come up with different games, ask questions in truth or dare…basically torture those of us who _are_ still playing.

"Ah, she's here!" James exclaims, clapping his hands together.

Instantly, everyone starts getting into position. The circle takes place, and we all get ready to play.

Oh, another thing. Family friends play, like my friend Cassidy (more about her later, all I'll say is she's half-Veela and a Metamorphagus. Yeah, I hate her too.). However, they don't participate in every round, like this one, obviously. So, they get the average score from the round added to their score. Just to keep things fair, so they still have a shot of winning. I think it was Dom who thought of that. James and Fred certainly wouldn't have, they are _way _to insensative. Not to mention idiotic, stupid, moronic, foolhardy, impatient…you get the picture.

"Who wants to start?" Dom asks, stretching out so that she's lying on her stomach.

"I'll ask." Fred says with an evil glint in his eye.

Oh, by the way, the questioner is the person who decides whether it's truth or dare. Not the answer. Fred thought he'd like to add in a twist when we started the truth or dare rounds.

"Hugo…ever shagged anyone?" Fred asks.

Well, what a way to start a game. Hugo gapes at him, and Rose blushes. Fair enough, I wouldn't want to think about my brother's shagging people either. Oh, no, bad mental images coming…

"Uh…" Hugo hesitates, which we all take to mean yes. Fred grins in triumph.

James butts in, playing the role of gamemaker, as always.

"Well, that was a fairly tame question, by our standards…so I'll give Hugo 2 points for that." He says, a quill and parchment appearing out of thin air in front of him, recording out scores.

"Hugo, your turn.

Hugo grins, having recovered from his humiliation.

"Lily. You…have to go downstairs, tip whatever Aunt Ginny's cooking for dinner all over her, and then go into the fridge, find dessert, and hover it over Uncle Harry's head, ending by dropping it on him." He grins at me.

Evil little bastard. That is a cruel, mean, sardonic just PLAIN EVIL dare.

I better get at least ten points for this.

Without a word, I get up and determinely march downstairs. I hear the others follow me, but they stop at the door, crowding around it.

Thanks to my years of practice, I cast a _muffliato_ charm on the kitchen for good measure, in case Dad hears something and gets suspicious. Wouldn't want to ruin the second part of my dare now, would I?

I stay in the doorway, thinking of how best to proceed. In the end I decide for the magical option, it's always easier. And it means I don't have to move, always a bonus.

"_Wingardium leviosa."_ I whisper, my wand pointed at the pot on the stove. It floats up obediantly, and I don't waste time.

I float it forward a few inches while Mum's focused on the pile of veggies beside the stove. Slowly, I start to tip it, just as Mum turns back to the stove. Just in time to be completely coated in meat sauce.

Mum shrieks, pulling out her wand to deal with the crisis. By the time she looks around to see who caused the mess, I've grabbed the dessert (a berry pie, in case you were wondering) out of the fridge and am on my way to the living room, and Dad.

I practically bolt along the corridor, skidding to a halt when I get to the living room. Dad's sitting with his back to me (thank Merlin, that makes this ten times easier), focused on the T.V. Grinning like the evil little minx I am, I use _wingardium leviosa_ again to hover the pie over to Dad's head.

Unfortunately, I forgot to consider the reflection in the T.V. Dad realises there's something hovering above him, and looks up.

I have a moment of panic, and the spell releases. Turns out that's the best thing I could hope for, because the pie drops, falling straight into Dad's face.

I bolt upstairs while he wipes pie off his face, laughing quietly to myself. That was fun! I haven't done a good dare in ages, or a prank, which is pretty much what that was.

"So, how did I do?" I ask as I re-enter the bedroom.

Roxy, Dom and Lucy break out into cheers, Lucy actually jumping up and hugging me.

I laugh.

"Clearly Cassidy's been teaching you a few things, Lil!" Roxy says.

"Yeah, I bet you could give her a run for Prankster Queen now." Louis says from his position on the floor.

I snorted.

"As if anyone refers to her as the 'Prankster Queen." I laugh.

Fred looks at me, completely serious.

"I would. Her pranks rival ours, and that's saying something." His voice is dead serious, making me crack up again.

Eventually we quieten down enough to score my efforts.

"So, "James starts, perched on the bed above us all, lording his status as scorer over us, "I think we all agree that that was epic."

He looks down at us, and I find myself thinking that all he needs is glasses perched on his nose, and he'd look exactly like a professor. Scary. He continues, in the same fake-serious tone.

"I think 5 points for the sauce slipping, plus an extra 5 for making it in and out without being seen."

Dom and Fred, the only other two who James considers equal status to him in these matters (something to do with them being the oldest, or some similar rubbish) nod in agreement.

"As for the second stage, well, I think 5 points, plus 2 bonus points for getting it in his face." James sniggers slightly, reliving the memory of his Dad's humiliation.

"Everyone agree?"

We all nod, though the others who are still competing look slightly put out that I scored so well.

Well, screw them. I think I just got the highest score EVER, so I don't give a damn what they think. Ha.

"JAMES SIRIUS POTTER! GET DOWN THESE STAIRS THIS INSTANT!" Mum screams up the stairs.

We all wince in unison.

There was a whole system in place to deal with these events. James was _always_ the one who gets called downstairs to explain the prank, I don't know why; I think Mum and Dad just trust him least. Not that I'm complaining, really.

He blames Al, who then gets called. He then blames me; I blame Rose, who blames Hugo, and so on. We basically confuse the hell out of them, which usually results in all of us getting into trouble.

Usually we just get chores, which is fine because we all use magic to do them, and when I was to young to do magic, I made Dom do it for me, though I had to give her all of my Chocolate Frog cards.

Sometimes, if the dare/prank is severe enough, we all get grounded. Only problem is, most of us are over 17, so we just apparate out of here. Those who cant, well, they're stuck, but whatever. James tends to argue this with Mum and Dad, the whole 'legal adult' thing, they shouldn't be able to ground him anymore, blah blah, you know what I mean.

So, basically, we never really get into that much trouble. I reckon it's because Mum and Dad did their fair share of troublesome stuff when they were our age, but Al says it's because they 'wuv us too much to punish us'. Yeah, right.

Well, that's the games for you. Our summer entertainment, the source of Mum and Dad's frustration, a major player in my pranking education, and the thing that's going to change my seventh year.

Want to know why? Well, Cassidy and I have a pact. We're going to bring the games to Hogwarts.


	2. Worthy of a Great Prankster

**Chapter 2 ****–**** Worthy of a Great Prankster**

I scream, dropping the letter in my hands.

I spend the next 3 minutes alternating between running through the house, screaming and jumping up and down like a maniac.

I got Quidditch Captain! THANK MERLIN!

"JAMES!" I scream upon seeing him.

I run up and practically jump on him.

"I GOT QUIDDITCH CAPTAIN!" I say, screaming my head off again.

"Ow, Lil, can you turn it down a bit, I think you just blew my eardrum." James says, wincing.

I glare at him, but even his stupid, smart arse comments can't quell my good mood.

At some point around 11, after two hours of joy, I calm down enough to get ready to Floo to Diagon Alley. Its tradition, every year on the day we get our letters, our whole extended family goes to Diagon Alley for the shopping trip.

"Lily, get down here or else we'll leave without you!" My mother called, always the threatening one.

I didn't doubt her threat either. I've seen both my brothers left behind more than once, though I've so far managed to escape.

Thankfully, I make it do Diagon Alley without getting left behind, and with only a slight scolding for taking my time.

James and Al nick off as soon as we get there, leaving me with Mum and Dad to do the school shopping. Wonderful. Hugo, Lucy and Louis soon join us with their respective parents, so I look like less of a loser.

"Percy." Ron says, barely greeting his brother.

The whole family finds Percy utterly boring, and his wife, Auntie Audrey, isn't much better. Though she is an awesome cook, so she has _something _going for her.

"Ronald." Percy says in reply. Uncle Ron winces hearing his full name, and I stifle a snigger.

I love seeing Uncle Ron squirm, he goes all red. It's hilarious.

"Oh, Percy, guess what?" Mum says, smiling in a way that lets me know that she's about to brag about me.

Percy turns to Mum, his face politely interested.

"Lily got Quidditch Captain." She says proudly. "Now all of my babies have." She smiles smugly.

Ok, _ew_. I am not a baby! Al and James most certainly arent, and would probably drop dead with embarrassment if they were here.

"Oh." Percy says. "That's nice."

"Lucy didn't get a Prefect, did she?" Mum asks, trying to be discreet.

I can tell, though. She wants to lord it over pompous Percy that all her children were captains, and his Lucy didn't get anything. So _typical_. At least Uncle Ron's kept his nose out so far, he tends to make these situations painful.

I quickly escape before things can get ugly, heading off on my own to Florish and Blotts.

As I push open the shop's door, I'm greeted by the musty smell of old books and several someones shrieking my name and dashing over to me.

"Lily!" Rowena Wilkins calls, practically choking me with her hug.

"We've missed you!" Amber Vector says, smiling warmly at me.

"Hey." Verity Callon calls, the only one not to run to me. She's still by the bookshelf, emersed in some book.

Verity's what I like to call our Ravenclaw. Sure, she's in Gryffindor, and has her fair share of bravery, but she's super smart, the master mind of all our pranks, along with Cassidy. She got four Outstandings on her O., for Merlin's sake.

She's also incredibly hard to get to know, but thankfully we've all been friends since she came in fifth year. She used to go to the Salem Witches Institute in America, which I still find incredibly cool.

If I'm classifying all of my friends into houses, our group also has a resident Hufflepuff. Rowena, despite being named after Ravenclaw, is the epitomy of Hufflepuff qualities, mixed with Gryffindor chivalry and a little bravery. Not to mention daring. She's the warm, bubbly, fun loving one of the group. She's also a Prefect, so she's the least likely to participate in our group's little pranks. Not that she doesn't, but she's just more careful about being caught.

Unlike me, with my two hundred gazillion detentions.

And finally, Amber. She's on the Quidditch team with me, a Beater, and also does the same subjects as me. Basically, she's a slightly more athletic, blond version of me. Along with Cassidy, she's the closest of my friends. I definitely trust her more than Cassidy, anyway. Like, if I wanted someone to blow up a bridge with me, I'd pick Cassidy. If I wanted some one to defend me from Voldy's reincarnation, it would be Amber. She's a true Gryffindor.

"Amber! Guess what!" I say as Rowena drags us over to Verity.

"You're Quidditch Captain?" Amber guesses.

I raise my eyebrows at her.

"Who told you?" I ask indignantly. That was _mine_ to share!

Amber laughed.

"We guessed. It was obvious, after all."

I grinned. I suppose it was.

After we got our books (Verity with at least twice as many as the rest of us, though I have no idea what she needs them all for) we headed to Florean's for ice cream.

Mum and Dad know to meet me there every year, because every year, without fail, I ditch them and join the girls. And every year we all meet up again at Florean's ice cream parlour.

For some reason, Cassidy's never here. Most years she's overseas with her family, visiting overseas branches of their family's joke shop, Gambles and Japes. I have no idea where she is this year, but she's probably doing her shopping on a different day. After all, this is only one day out of the whole summer, not _everyone_ does their school shopping on the same day as me. Just most people.

"So, anyone have any exciting summer stories to tell?" I say, leaning back in my chair, relishing the sun as it warms my skin.

"Mum and Dad surprised me with a trip to Paris." Rowena says, acting like it's nothing.

Right. Paris, normal for her, of course. She goes overseas at least once a year (though never for as long as Cassidy) and most of her clothes are either from Paris or Milan. Sigh.

"I applied to St Mungo's to be a Healer." Verity added.

We all stared at her.

"Ver, that's _over a year_ early." I say, shocked.

"So?" Verity says, all innocent. "I like to be on top of things."

Rolling my eyes, I turn to Amber.

"You got anything to report?" I ask, licking my icecream.

"Oh, not much, you know….just that…I GOT A BOYFRIEND!" She practically shrieks in my ear, and everyone in the vicinity turns around to glare at us.

"What? How?" I exclaim, hugging her.

"Who? Hogwarts?" Rowena asks, always more practical than me.

Amber glares at me.

"Gee, thanks, Lil. Rowena, to answer your question, his name's Ewan, he's in our year, a Ravenclaw."

"I didn't mean it!" I say, almost not registering the second thing she said.

"Wait, do you mean Mr 'Shy and Quiet'? Really?" I ask incredulously.

"He's actually really nice!" Amber giggles.

Well, looks like I've lost my athletic, slightly tomboy friend then. Seventh year presents Amber Vector, head over heels in love. Right, then.

Suddenly, we're interrupted by a nasal, stuck up voice coming from behind my left shoulder. Spinning around as fast as I can in a seat, my eyes see (and narrow upon seeing) Mina and Delia Pucey.

Yuck.

Delia's two years older than us, and according to Rose, a right bitch. Mina's in our year, and my nemisis. She takes great pleasure in ratting on us so we get detentions, but also loves to start duels with me and Cassidy, just for the hell of it. When Cassidy's cauldron exploded in 2nd year, it was in direct retaliation to Mina. She'd insulted Cassidy for something, who promptly made her cauldron explode all over Mina, who spent a week in the hospital wing. The potions classroom, on the other hand, took 6 months to repair and still isn't quite the same.

"Who on earth would go out with Vector?" Mina says, sneering at us.

I glare at her; I really have no patience for her snide comments. Plus, she's blocking my sun.

I stand up, my half eaten ice cream in my hand.

"Hey Mina, nice to see you too. Did you get a facial? Your skin looks so clear!" I say, in my best fake nice voice.

Mina looks appropriately shocked. Rightly so, I'm never nice to her, unless I'm plotting something. I'm surprised she isn't running for cover right now, actually.

"Oh…no I haven't." She says, clearly shaken.

"Oh really? Well, let me give you one then."

Grinning evily, I shove my ice cream in her face, to much laughter from my friends, and shrieking from Mina and her sister.

They practically bolt out of there, Mina scratching at her now chocolate ice cream coated eyes. As they leave, I whip out my wand, casting a few curses that I know will make it so much more difficult for her to get the ice cream off. Ah, the simple pleasure of torturing Slytherins.

I turn back around to my friends.

"Nice one, Lily." Amber says, patting me on the back.

"I added my own hex, hope you don't mind." Verity says, and I look at her in surprise.

Verity hardly ever actively participates in our pranks, she's the mastermind only.

"What does it do?" I ask, curious.

"Etch 'Creamed' into her forhead in pink writing. Only I can remove it." Verity smirks.

I burst out laughing again, stopping abruptly when I see Rowena's frown. Usually, that means she feels obligated to tell a teacher on us.

"Come on, Row, term hasn't even started yet. You can't possibly give us detention already." I grin at her.

She smiles slightly.

"Don't worry, I won't, but Lily, you've got a position of responsibility now. You can't go around setting such a bad example any more, or your captiancy will be taken away from you." Her tone is serious, and I sigh.

"I won't do anything at school, I promise." I say, raising my hands in defeat.

Rowena nods in agreement.

"At least, not anything that will get me caught." I add, making Amber laugh again. Even Rowena smiles slightly, knowing she can't control me.

Half an hour later, and I'm at home. Mum and Dad showed up shortly after the ice cream incident (which they didn't witness, thankfully), bogged down with all my school equipment.

Currently I'm in my room, starting the torturous process of packing my trunk. Firstly, I have to empty it of all my junk from last year, which is what I'm doing now. So far, I'm found 3 socks missing a pair, 2 Gryffindor ties and one Ravenclaw one (no idea how that got there), the Marauder's Map (which I got after Al left school, it's been passed from Dad to James to Al to me) and last year's game winning snitch wrapped in the Invisibility Cloak (also passed down the Potter line, though James insists that it's his when Dad's dies, something about being the oldest child).

It's only a few days till term starts, but I know it'll take my that long to pack, it always does. Plus, it takes ages to shrink all my pranking materials and hide them from Mum, who goes through my trunk every year without fail. So far she's never confiscated anything I care about, but I'm not going to take my chances. I also have to take all the stuff Cassidy and I will need for the games, so that's a whole other packing scenario.

Oh, you know how I was classifying my friends into houses before? Well, something just occurred to me. Out of my four best friends, we have a Gryffindor (Amber), a Ravenclaw (Verity) and a Hufflepuff (Rowena). Well, they're all actually in Gryffindor, but you know what I mean. If they had to pick a second house, that's what they'd pick, I'm sure of it.

My other best friend is so far unclassified. However, there's no doubt in my mind what Cassidy would be. Sure, she's my friend and I love her to bits, but she can be a downright bitch at times, not to mention spiteful, revengeful…you get the picture. Basically, never cross her, or you'll regret it. Cassidy is, without a doubt, a Slytherin at heart.

Though, in my opinion, her ruthlessness makes her so much better as a prankster. I'm starting to agree with Louis on her title of Prankster Queen, actually. She and her pranks scare me, sometimes, even though I'm usually in the thick of them.


	3. The Prankster's Queen

**Chapter 3 ****–**** The Prankster's Queen**

"It's starting!" I squeal to the compartment at large.

Verity just looks at me like I'm insane, Rowena laughs, and Amber looks confused.

"What's starting?" Amber asks, her eyes wide with confusion, which only makes Rowena laugh more.

"Our final year! The year that will be epicly awesome!" I clap my hands together for emphasis, resulting in all three of my friends bursting into laughter at my expense.

Humph.

Disgruntled, I sit back in my seat, crossing my arms over my chest angrily. The train hasn't left the station yet, but the four of us ran to our usual compartment as soon as we could to escape our families. What can I say, at the age of 17, being waved off to school by your parents and having to endure a kiss on the cheek from Mummy dearest isn't exactly good for your reputation.

"Did you miss me?" Comes a voice from the doorway.

Cassidy's here. Very nearly late, of course, but if you told her that, she'd say "it's fashionable". She looks fabulous, decked out in the latest Parisian fashions.

"Hey Cass." I say, hugging her as she sits down next to me.

"So I'm guessing you went all over Europe this summer?" Rowena says, the travel expert among us.

"Oh, yeah. Daddy was meeting some business man in Paris at the start of the holidays, so we started there, worked through Italy…" Cassidy trailed off, busy reapplying her makeup, not that I could see anything wrong with it in the first place.

"So, Lily, you all ready for a grande plan extraordinaire?" Cassidy ask me, snapping her hand help mirror shut and turning to me.

"Of course." I say, smiling. "I packed everything I could think of. Oh, and I stole the Weasel Pot, in case we wanted it. It's mine by rights this year anyway, since I won the summer games."

"Are you guys going to let us in on this little plan?" Verity asks with a yawn.

"Yeah, we here all this stuff about the games the start of every year, and now when you're actually bringing them to Hogwarts, you haven't told us anything!" Amber exclaims, narrowing her eyes in frustration.

Sighing, Cassidy and I turn to eachother.

"Do you want to explain, or should I?" I ask.

"I'll do it." She says, like I knew she would. She loves to be the centre of attention, in case you couldn't tell.

The start of term feast was exactly the same as always. The Sorting, a boring, snore-worthy speech from Professor Herrick, our Headmaster who replaced McGonagall a couple of year ago, and food that shames my Grandma Weasley's. So, nothing new to report, really.

We did have one new teacher, though, for Muggle Studies. The new teacher is _definitely_ not what I expected. For one, it's a she, which _never_ happens with Creatures, and she's young. Not to mention pretty enough for Cassidy to feel threatened (which is oh so much worse for me). Professor Dayle had half of the 6th year boys drooling over her before the feast had finished. Great, just great. It's going to make dating so much harder when all the boys finally have a teacher to fantasise about, someone who, according to Daniel (my fellow Quidditch member, and most of the time a complete ass) "is completely shaggable, not to mention _mature". _Honestly, why do guys what a mature woman? The guys in my year are as immature as they come, it doesn't make sense.

Anyway, that's enough of my ranting. Professor Dayle's also the new head of Gryffindor, because our previous head apparently couldn't be bothered putting up with us anymore. I mean, we're not that bad, are we? Well, besides my friends and I, our House is pretty good. Surely it can't be just 5 girls who ruin the reputation of our house, can it?

Wow, I'm really on a roll with the ranting tonight. Well, that's not the real reason I'm raving on like some headless Hippogriph. You see, I happened to have my own little run in with our new 'professor' after the feast, and I don't think we got off on the right foot.

"Ah, Miss Potter, just the person I was looking for."

I whip around at the sound of an unfamiliar voice just over my right shoulder, and who do I see but the Professor herself? 

"Professor Dayle." I say, more in shock than in greeting, which I think she may have noticed.

"I trust you're happy with your new post?" She asks, crossing her arms over her chest in the perfect picture of an authorative teacher, only twenty years younger.

"Ah..yeah…" I said, assuming she was referring to my Quidditch captaincy. Unless, you know I've suddenly been made Supreme Mugwump without being notified.

"Good. Then I hope to see some improvement in your behaviour this year, then. As you know are a leader of this school, a responsible role model and all." She smiled down at me, all sickly sweet.

It was then that my brain went into what I like to call Cassidy mode. Otherwise known as stupid, brash, completely ignorant of the consequences mode.

"Ah, Professor, if you're hoping to keep me from my usual trouble making ways, you're mistaken. Offering one of this school's greatest prankster's a position of responsibility never works. Believe me, it failed with my uncle, my grandfather and my godbrother's father. So, since I'll be seeing you in, oh I don't know, about three hundred detentions this year, I hope we become good friends." I smile just as sweetly back at her, spinning on my heel and stalking out of there.

I think I left her gaping, but she recovered by the time I was halfway up the stairs.

"50 points from Gryffindor, Miss Potter, for your cheek." She said, quickly catching up to me.

As she brushed past me, I heard her mutter,

"And detention every night this week, starting tomorrow."

So here I was, almost two hours later, still fuming. In the intervening hours, I've ranted to Cassidy, Row, Ver (who said I deserved it, typically) and Amber. I did NOT deserve detention every night this week, nor to be docked 50 points. Who does this 'Dayle' think she is anyway?

"I mean, she basically just ruined our chances of winning the house cup! Unless we win the Quidditch Cup, which we probably will, so it doesn't really matter…but still! She can't dock me 50 POINTS! _And_ give me detention all week!"

None of them responded. I'd been ranting for a while now, and they were pretty used to just tuning me out.

"So, any ideas anyone? We have to take her down! It's not like she's a real teacher, she's only like, eighteen." Okay, that may have been a slight exaggeration, but that was beside the point. I really thought we had to do something before this situation went out of hand.

So far, none of them have been very helpful. Cassidy's the only one whose actually doing anything; she's digging through all her files trying to find some dirt on our dear professor (I have no idea where these files come from, by the way, but they sure do make pranks fun).

"Well, I can tell you that she has a phobia of crups." Cassidy said, looking up from her piles of paper.

"Gee, thanks Cass. That's completely and utterly USELESS!" I exclaimed, pounding my chair in frustration.

The common room was almost empty now, but I still got a few weird looks from the younger students hanging around.

"Lil, maybe we can't get back at her. You might just have to ride this one out." Rowena said from her perch next to the fire.

"Row, you are the Prefect and all, but I can't just sit here and let this 'Professor' completely destroy our plan for the games. She has to be taken down." I say matter-of-factly.

Cassidy sighs.

"We'll still get the games running. We're just going to have to be sneaking about it." Cassidy sits up, smiling in a _very_ evil way, which usually means she's got a plan.

"And I have an idea for the first game, which not only gets every student involved, but will also make our dear Professor Dayle pay for her actions against you."

I raised my eyebrows at her, getting hopeful now.

"And this grand plan is…?" I trail off, letting Cassidy finish.

"The first game is a prank. But not any prank, one with a target." She pauses for effect, but I've already figured out her plan.

"And she's our target." I grin. "Brilliant."

Cassidy and I immediately delve into the planning and brainstorming phase of this plan, which quickly becomes Operation TDD, or Take Down Dayle. Verity runs off to bed, apparently she can't do her pre-term reading with us all plotting around her. Amber's almost as vengeful as I am, apparently she had some points docked today too, for 'inappropriate displays of affection in public' or something like that.

Apparently Professor Dayle is not only young, fairly attractive and hates Crups, but also is a prude. I think I hate her more that I hate Uncle Percy, which is saying something.

Rowena, like always, wants to plot along with us, but is torn. Part of her is the loyal Prefect, but she also can't resist the action. After an hour, she is as much in the thick of it as I am.

However, Rowena was the only one who actually said that we might be taking it too far.

True, we had only just met Professor Dayle. But really, she needs to be taught the way of the Gryffindors. We do not get controlled; we have had weak, spineless Heads of House for years, ever since McGonagall was Headmistress.

It was our reputation as prankers at stake here, as well as the games. Plus, the Slytherins would love it if we all got detention for the rest of the year. So we had to do something.

We all did concede to delay the implementing of Operation TDD until further offences had been committed by Professor Dayle, though. It was a _tad_ unreasonable to strike back at her on the second day of school. Besides, it would take us a while to set up the games, even though the first game was all planned out.

All in all, it looked like I would have to suffer through my week's worth of detentions. Bollocks.


	4. Representing Hufflepuff

**Chapter 4 Representing Hufflepuff**

Detention certainly wasn't what I had imagined.

Firstly, I wasn't the only student suffering. Two Hufflepuffs, one Slytherin and myself were all subjected to torture on this lovely evening. At least that cleared one thing up; she wasn't singling me out. Or even her own house.

Secondly, we were searching the Forbidden Forest. Yeah, I know, wierd. Not the typical detention style. Still, I'm not really complaining. All we had to do was collect anything we found that looked unusual, and hand it in at the end of two hours.

I think the Hufflepuffs were a tad scared about being in the Forest for detention, but I knew better. All the dark, scary creatures that used to reside here have long gone. The only bad thing here now is the occasional Bowtruckle.

The four of us worked in a group, spread out several metres apart so that we covered the ground fairly quickly. To my left was the guy from Hufflepuff, who was in my year. I think his name was Brendt, but I'm not really to 100% on that. I certainly haven't had anything to do with him, anyway.

On his other side was the other Hufflepuff, a girl the year below us. Her name's something Robbins, possibly Amy or Amanda…I'm not really sure. She's Hufflepuffs Keeper, so I only recognize her as the enemy on pitch.

On my left, was probably my most hated person at Hogwarts. Well, after Professor Dayle, and probably equal with Mina Pucey.

Mace Derrick. Slytherin seeker, in my year, in the same, stuck up group of pure-bloods as Mina. He's one of our usual prank targets, and we have a pretty strong rivalry between us. So far, weve tried to trip each other up 5 times this detention, I've sent 6 hexes at him (he's dodged them all, the bastard), he's sent 6 back at me (I also dodged them all), we've thrown an assortment of rocks, twigs and dirt at each other and an almost constant barrage of insults has been passed between us.

We only stopped because Brendt and Amanda/Amy Robbins threatened to chain us to a tree and leave us here till we sorted out our issues. Typical Hufflepuffs, always wanting everyone to play nice.

After an hour, detention was quickly becoming boring. Derrick and I were maintaining a hostile silence, lest we get chained to a tree. The two Hufflepuffs were talking quietly, ignoring Derrick and I.

Scowling at the whole situation, I scanned the forest floor in front of me. Really, what did Professor Dayle expect us to find out here? There's only twigs and dirt. Oh, and the stone that Dad dropped, but no one knows where that is.

I kicked a stone along with my foot, bored out of my mind. I could see Derrick out of the corner of my eye, and I was tempted to hex him just so I had _something_ to do, but the threat of the two Hufflepuffs was still looming over me. Weird that I feel threatened by two Hufflepuffs, who would have thought?

Now, you might be wondering what _exactly_ has happened between Derrick and I to cause such a hatred. Basically, we have a very colourful past, mostly consisting of him being pranked and getting revenge on us, and the daily insults when we pass eachother in the corridors. That's not all of it, though.

All through sixth year, we mostly ignored each other. It seemed like a waste of energy to insult each other. So that was where we were at for the last day of term, and the annual End of Year party that Cassidy and I throw (and, unfortunately, it's been a tradition since my brother James' day that everyone from 5th year up, no matter what house, is invited. Meaning the Slytherins, including Derrick, were there).

"_Cass!" I call, seeing my blonde haired friend on the other side of the Room of Requirement. _

_Cassidy turns around, seeing me practically throwing people out of the way to get to her, and laughs. _

"_Lil, how many firewhiskys have you had?" She asks, grabbing me and dragging me to a couch. _

"_Uh…" I said, trying to remember. I'd had two with Cassidy before the party had started, but after that I don't know. _

_I shrugged at Cassidy, and she laughed again. My guess was that she's had quite a few herself. _

_We sat on the couches for a while, but Cassidy got bored and went off to a group of Gryffindors, the year above us. Row, Ver and Amber were around somewhere, but I couldn't see them. _

_The firewhisky was starting to hit me. My head was spinning, and there was only one thing that would stop it. _

"_Spin the bottle!" I call to the room at large. _

In hindsight, that was probably the _worst_ thing I could've said. What can I say, I'm a weird, crazy drunk.

_The game got started, and I was thoroughly enjoying myself. Cassidy was playing, sitting on my right. There were about 20 of us in total, including Pucey and Derrick, but I was trying to ignore them. _

Now, you have to understand our version of spin the bottle. The bottle spins, landing on one person. They then spin the bottle again, landing on a second person. Those two then have to snog.

Dont blame me, I didn't come up with it. I think Fred might've, actually.

_Cassidy, having just snogged a Hufflepuff 7__th__ year, spun the bottle. _

_It landed on me. Of course. _

_I spun, closing my eyes as I did. As long as it landed on some nice Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Gryffindor guy, I was fine. As long as it wasnt-_

"_Derrick"! I heard Cassidy shriek, cackling like a maniac. _

_I groaned inwardly. _

_Luckily, most people weren't paying attention to our game anymore, either too drunk to care or busy snogging someone, so I wasn't the centre of attention. Even Cassidy, who'd just screamed out his name, was now absorbed in the guy on her right. Attention span of a goldfish, that one. _

_I was tempted to end the game right there, but I knew better from my years of games with my cousins. You never back out of a dare, bet or game. _

I won't give the details, but Derrick and I ended up snogging.

_We pulled apart, panting. I had intended to glare menacingly at him, and push him away, but that all changed. My brain wasn't working (most likely because of the alcohol, but I suspect there were other forces at work), and he was staring at me, looking just as dumbstruck as me. _

_Everyone else had stopped paying attention. We seperated, and I avoided him for several hours. It wasn't till the party had wound down, most people returning to their common rooms, that I saw him again. _

"_Hey, Lil, Im going-" Cassidy called to me, giggling into the Hufflepuff's neck that she was with. _

_I think she was going to ask me to close up the room and get everyone back, but she never finished. The Hufflepuff was occupying her mouth. Ew. _

_I thought everyone had left. The room was silent, I knew my roomates had long gone. _

_Picking up a cup and lobbing it in the bin, I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw Derrick standing in the doorway. _

_I wasn't as drunk as I had been before. I hadn't had any since the game, so I was fully aware of what had happened. _

And, unfortunately, fully aware of what I was doing.

"_Potter", Derrick said, looking all serious, and not as drunk as he was before, either. _

"_We-what…what did that mean"? He asked, his eyes carefully trained on the carpet. _

_Well. I had thought the snog was just, well, a snog, but thinking about it, I realised why he had felt the need to clarify things. It hadn't been just a snog. It had been a bloody FANTASTIC snog, better than most guys give, that I can say. _

_When his lips had met mine, I had stopped thinking. _

_I gulped, not able to come up with an answer to his question. _

"_I dont know". I said, honestly. We were both avoiding the others gaze, both staring at the floor. _

_I saw his feet approach me, but I stayed still. I think his eyes were on me now, but I didnt dare look up. I felt his hand come to my chin, forcing my face upwards. Under any other circumstance, I would've hexed him to Mars, but I couldn't, I was frozen, somehow. _

_I looked at him, right into his eyes, and I was completely lost. Again. _

I'm ashamed to say it, but we snogged. Again and again. And did a fair bit more, too. Not the proudest night of my life, I must say. We did _not_ go all the way, thank Merlin, but far enough that I regret it. Honestly, why of all people did I snog Derrick?

So, here I was, several months later, carefully avoiding him in case that night came up again. We haven't talked about it, and I don't intend to. I most definitely do NOT fancy him. I mean, he's an arrogant Slytherin who insults me. He's done it several times already tonight, and if that's any indication, I'd say he wants to forget that night.

"Well, that's our two hours up." Brendt the Hufflepuff said, startling me out of me reverie.

I looked up, seeing that we'd somehow arrived at the edge of the forest, and Dayle was approaching.

"Mr Macmillan, Miss Robbins, you may go." She said to the Hufflepuffs, waving them off.

As they made their way up to the castle, she turned to Derrick and I.

"Miss Potter, Mr Derrick, I'll see you back here tomorrow for your next detention."

With a sickly sweet smile, she turned on her heel and strutted away to the castle. Derrick and I looked at each other, and I'm pretty sure the look of disgust on his face matched my own.

I had to spend two hours in the forest with him, tomorrow, alone?

Oh, this will be just bloody fan-frickin-tastic!

"So, I've got sign up sheets ready, all we have to do is start collecting names of students who want to participate in the games tomorrow. Ive had quite a few express interest, so clearly the campaign to get students enthused and aware about our games has been working."

Cassidy was in full gamemaker mode, with a clip board and everything. I think she should go into event managing, she's been amazing at getting the games up and running. If she got to do something like the Quidditch World Cup, or a Triwizard Tournament, she would ace it.

"That's great. Sorry I couldn't help more. I mean, who gets stuck in detention on the first night?" I grumbled, plonking myself down in my favourite armchair by the fire.

"That's okay." Cassidy shrugged.

She was in a good mood tonight, her excitement over the games evident in her face. We'd already been over our plans for the games themselves, and all that remained was to get contestants; tomorrows task.

"Tomorrow, just take one of these sheets, and get as many names as you can." She handed me a stack of sign up sheets, which I shoved into my school bag, already packed with all the homework I had yet to start.

I groaned when I realised I had to do 2 essays, one for Transfiguration and one for Defence, by tomorrow. And I had ten questions to answer for Charms, reading for Potions, a drawing of a Venemous Tentacula for Herbology. The only subject that hadn't given me any homework on the first day back was Care of Magical Creatures, and only because Hagrid was too nice to do so. Plus, COMC hardly counted as a subject, all we did was sit around and chat while Hagrid played with various beasts.

"Cass, I really need to do some homework, so can we lay of the planning till tomorrow?" I said, dragging my books out of my bag in a resigned way.

Cassidy looked at me, and I saw anger flash in her eyes before she replaced it with a smile.

"Sure. I'm going to head up, so I'll see you in the morning." She flounced off and up the stairs, attracting quite a few male onlookers as she did.

I rolled my eyes. It was typical of Cassidy to make sure her exit was noticed. I mean, she's part-Veela, she's always going to have guys ogling her, but she likes the attention. She also has a wicked temper, which I think I'd just narrowly avoided.

With a sigh, I turned to my mountain of homework. Seventh year sure wasn't fun.

Well, not yet anyway.

"You'll get notified about the first game in about a week." I said to the 5th year Ravenclaw who had just signed my sheet.

"Okay!" She said, all perky and happy.

She bounced off, and I scowled at her back. I was _not_ a morning person. Especially not when I've been up till two in the morning completing my homework. Seventh year really sucks, I'm telling you.

Thank god the games are starting, it gives me something to live for.

I sit back down at the Gryffindor table, helping myself to my second cup of coffee for the day. Row and Ver were here, but Amber and Cass were still asleep. Typical. Amber's a late sleeper, like me, but Cassidy likes to take an hour to make herself 'beautiful'.

I swear, she's delusional. One, she's part-Veela and naturally stunning. Two, she's a metamorphagus, so if she's having a bad hair day, or has a pimple, she can just make it disappear.

If any of us need to spend an hour primping, it's me. With bright red hair, I don't exactly attract a long line of guys. Not that I haven't had a few guys(not including certain Slytherins), but I had nothing on Cassidy. Even Amber has a boyfriend (who I haven't met yet, by the way…he's certainly living up to the name of Mr Shy and Quiet). Verity's too focues on getting into a Ministry job after this year to want a 'distraction', as she calls guys.

Rowena had a boyfriend last year, but they broke up just before term ended. She won't talk about it, but I'm sure she'll find someone this year, leaving me to be the singleton all by myself. Wonderful.

"Hey, Lily."

I looked up, wondering who this person could be. So far, I've had fifteen different people approach me to sign up for the games. It looks like it will be massive, since it's only 8 o'clock in the morning. This will be BRILLIANT.

"Oh…Brendt, right?" I ask, recognizing the Hufflepuff from detention last night.

"Yeah, we were in detention last night." Brendt grinned at me, showing off very, and I mean very, white teeth.

I've got to say, he wasn't unattractive. Not really my type, a bit to 'nice guy' and safe for me, but I appreciate his hotness.

Anyway, back to the actual conversation. I really need to stop rambling…note to self….

"You want to sign up?" I said, holding out the sheet to him.

"Oh, yes…" He said, trailing off as he grabbed my quill and signed.

I smiled at him as he finished, taking my quill back, and lying the sheet down on the table.

"Also…." He stopped as soon as I looked at him. What could he possibly want? 

"Yes?" I asked, sincerely hoping he wasn't about to tell me I had my shirt on backwards, or something equally humilating.

It wouldn't be the first time.

"Uh…would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me?" He asked, going red.

I stared at him. Was he…asking me on a date? Well, that was a first. I've never had an actual boyfriend per se. Snogged guys at parties, but a boyfriend and dating are a whole new world to me. I raised my eyebrows, considering.

Well, what did I have to lose, really?

"Sure." I said, smiling slightly at him, returning to my breakfast.

"Really?" He said, his face lighting up. "Great!"

He practically skipped off to the Hufflepuff table. I rolled my eyes. Hufflepuff's were all the same; willing to embrace their inner child.

I turned back to my friends, and saw both Row and Ver eying me curiously.

"Who's he?" Rowena asked, studying Brendt as he ate his breakfast on the next table.

"Oh, just some guy who I met in detention last night. He's in our year, you know." I said, grabbing a danish.

"I know, Lily. He's been in our Charms class since last year." She rolled her eyes at me.

"Oh." I was momentarily surprised. You'd think I would've recognized him, but apparently not. I shrugged it off, what could I do? Clearly my memory's not great at remembering every single person in my classes. Remembering a thousand different ways to cause someone to fall down the stairs by 'accident'? Yeah, that I'll remember forever.

"Do you like him?" Rowena said, leaning in, eager for a good bit of gossip.

Sadly, I was going to disappoint.

"Not really. Just thought I should get a date to Hogsmeade, while the opportunity was there."

Rowena rolled her eyes at me, about to retort, but Cassidy and Amber arrived.

"Guess what?" Rowena said, causing me to groan.

Verity, as usual, was reading and ignoring everything that was going on. She really was the complete opposite of the rest of us.

"Lily got a date to Hogsmeade!" Rowena says loudly, causing several heads to turn towards us.

"Shush!" I say, glaring at Row. She rolls her eyes for the second time today.

"Really?" Cassidy says, turning to me, a slight smile on her face, one I've come to associate with 'evil plots' and 'good gossip'.

"He's the blonde Hufflepuff sitting over there. Brendy Macmillan." Verity adds, not looking up from her book.

Cassidy and Amber turn to evaluate my 'date', and I return to devouring my danish.

"She doesn't like him, though." Rowena says, and I groan.

I really don't need to go into an intense analysis of my feelings for some guy I just met right now. It's way, way too early.

"Wait, what?" Amber says, turning to me, incredulously.

Cassidy snorts.

"Let me guess, you only went out with him so you'll have a date for Hogsmeade, to keep your reputation intact?" She says, inspecting her nails.

"Got it in one." I say, grinning at Cassidy, who grins back.

"Fair enough." She replies, grabbing a piece of fruit and biting into it.

Yeah, I know, she's one of those people who maintains a 'healthy diet', at least when she's not at parties. Actually, only when she feels like it, really. It's not like she needs to, I think she does it for appearances only, kinda like my 'date'.

"Wait, you condone her just-just using someone?" Amber says, staring wide-eyed at Cassidy.

"Amber, I only just met the guy. If it turns out okay, maybe we'll go out again. Who knows. There was no reason for me to turn him down, he's attractive enough." I shrugged, pouring my 3rd cup of coffee.

Amber knew me well enough to not argue, and our conversation turned to lighter topics, like, say Quidditch. Turns out that the usual Quidditch referee, Madam Boot, was stepping down, apparently she's had enough of pulling duelling and punching Quidditch players off each other.

Basically, we were left without a referee.

None of us had any idea who it would be. Our friend Daniel Radon, Chaser for Gryffindor and in our year, was the most informed. He joined us towards the end of breakfast, all excited with his news.

"Apparently they've hired an ex-pro!" He said, practically bouncing in his seat.

Daniel was basically a Quidditch nut. He's also a bit of a ladies man, and a partier, but he's all right as a friend. I would never, ever date him, lest I want to get cheated on and go crazy. One girl, Cecilia in Ravenclaw, actually spent a week in the Hospital Wing after Daniel dumped her. What can I say? He's the 'perfect man', but gives a mean dumping.

"Really?" I say, leaning forward in interest.

"I bet it'll be your mum, Lil." Amber says, grinning at me in an evil way.

I glare at her. Cassidy, Verity and Rowena have all left, not really ones to partake in Quidditch talk.

"It will NOT be my mum. Besides, she's way biased to Gryffindor." I grin at that.

"Well, I hope it's her then. Anything to beat Slytherin." Daniel says, grinning widely as he gets up to leave for our first class of the day.

Grumbling slightly, Amber and I follow, me mentally preparing myself for another onslaught of homework tonight. And detention with Derrick…whoop de do.


	5. Game Gone Wrong

**Chapter 5 ****–**** Game Gone Wrong**

**A/N: **

**Okay, I just like to warn anyone actually reading this story (if you are, please review!) that I probably won't be updating a lot in the next few weeks, its final exam time for me (I live in Aus, it's my final year of high school…eek!)**

**So, just wanted to give you a warning, basically. I do have up to chapter 19 planned though, so I most definitely am NOT abandoning this story, and never will (I hope, unless my computer gets blown up, or something like that…)**

**Anyway, I'll let you read! (and review! Please, greatly appreciated)**

"I don't believe this!" I sigh, seeing the never-ending list of names on my sheet.

"At least 50 people have signed up to try out for the Quidditch team! This is insane!"

Groaning, I sank back into my favourite armchair, already dreading tomorrow. Trials were always tedious, but now that I was Captain, I had the added stress of having to actually pick people.

Of course, we already had a full team, as our reserve from last year, Kelsey Montrop, had moved into our previous Captain's chaser spot. Last year's captain, Brian Wood (older brother of Callum Wood, one of our Chasers) had been a dictator of a Captain, but he'd made sure we won.

Actually, James before him hadn't been much better. Between James and Wood, the team was in pretty good shape. As long as none of the new hopefuls out flew existing members, we should be fine.

Hopefully.

"Well, I've got over 200 in total, which for us is a good thing." Cassidy says, joining me next to the fire.

"That many people have signed up for the games?" I say, staring open mouthed at my best friend.

"Yep." Cassidy grins at me.

I sat back, pondering the momumental size of the games. Hogwarts was in for a shock, for sure.

"Wow. If we pull it off, it will be bloody fantastic." I say, already getting excited.

"Well, we better since the first game kicks off on Sunday." Cassidy says, rifling through her stack of paper.

"Cass, that's two days away. Are we ready?" I turn to her, looking for assurance.

"Lil, think about who you're talking to. Of _course_ we're ready."

With a wide grin, she set off towards a group of 4th years, probably to convince them to sign up. Sighing, I started my homework, knowing that I'd lose almost all of tomorrow to Quidditch trials.

"Shut up!" I yell to the screaming masses of aspiring Quidditch players.

Sheesh, they are CRAZY. Usually, the Quidditch ref is present to help the Captain, me in this case, keep control. But, unfortunately for me, we currently have no referee. Wonderful.

"Alright, anyone trying out to be a chaser, line up over there!" I scream, pointing to my right.

"Beaters, to my left, Keepers behind me and Seekers in front! MOVE!" I shriek, as no one seems to be paying me any attention.

Thankfully, after a few blows of my handy whistle (I'm ashamed to admit I conjured it just for this purpose) everyone was organised into neat little rows, and the try-outs began.

I eliminated more than half of my 'hopefuls' in the next 5 minutes, asking first the Chasers, then Beaters, then Keepers and Seekers to fly once round the pitch.

Honestly, why would you come to try out for a team when you can't even fly? Some people astound me.

Anyway, I'm currently down to 4 okayish Chasers, 3 Beaters, no keepers and no seekers (they were all hopeless, and since we have a full team I wasn't going to even attempt to be nice to the hopefuls).

Honestly, I'm pretty sure none of the kids on the pitch can hold a candle to the guys already on the team, so I decided to test my theory.

"Okay, now, Chasers, you're going to try and beat, or equal, the number of goals out current Chaser, Kelsey, can score in a minute."

I grin at Kelsey, who looks ready to go. She's pretty damn good at getting goals past Hugo, which is why I picked her. It'll be almost impossible for anyone to beat her.

And she scored 10. In a minute. I think that's a record, personally.

Oh, and look, none of the 'hopefuls' came close. Funny about that, huh?

Now, only 3 Beaters to get rid off, and I can justify that all my current players belong on this year's team.

After another 20 minutes of torture, I announced the team, no surprises there, and we all headed off to the changes rooms, and then the common rooms.

"Oh, Lil, I forgot to tell you, but Cassidy wants to meet you in the Room of Requirement, something about tomorrow." Amber mutters in my ear as we head up to the castle.

I roll my eyes, supressing a groan.

"Geez, that girl needs to relax. Everything will be fine, there's no point stressing about it and going over, and over-" I say, only to be cut of by Amber.

"And over it." Amber finishes.

We grin at each other, both having dealt with Cassidy's antics for a fair while. We separate, her heading for Gryffindor Tower and me to the seventh floor, and the best room in the whole world, in my opinion.

"Hey, Cass." I say to the back of my blonde haired friend's head.

"Hey" She replies, not turning around.

"Cass, everything will be fine." I say, sitting down on a couch (I swear it's never appeared in here before, but whatever. The magic of this room is lost on me).

"Why are we meeting here?' I asked, looking around. The room looked completely different from the usual party set up, with a table and 2 chairs behind it, sheets of paper, white boards with empty charts and graphs, an hour glass, and a few sofas.

"This is our headquarters, for the games." Cassidy replies, finally looking up from her wad of notes.

"Oh." I say.

Of course. I never even thought of that, we would need some place to keep track of the score, as this was on a MUCH larger scale than I was used to, with just my family.

Cassidy really should go into event planning, she thinks of everything.

"Did you get the Crups?" I asked.

"Of course I did. They're essentially to our attempt at tomorrow's game, are they not?" She asked, sticking her quill behind her ear.

"Yeah. No one better think of that too, or we are _so_ screwed." I say, projecting my typical worry when it comes to pranks.

Cassidy snorts at this.

"Lil, no one even knows that Professor Dayle's afraid of Crups. I'm the only one with access to those sort of records, I made sure of it. Plus, they don't have our experience."

We grinned evilly at each other for a while.

You see, we've both decided to participate in the games, for entertainment purposes only. We weren't competing, as such, for obvious reasons as we thought of the games, and knew all the details way before we released them to the competitors. A rigged game is just not done; same as backing out's just not done.

"Cass?" I say after a while. I know she's back to stressing about tomorrow.

"Mmm?" She says, dragging her eyes out of her work.

"I'm going to head back, it's nearly dinner. And I need to finalise some details for our prank at breakfast."

She nods at me, and I leave. The first game starts at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning, and it was posted in all the dormitories (on a piece of paper that, to a teacher, looks like a notice for the Gobstones Club, ingenious, I know) last week. The first game is a prank. We decided to start with a prank, then a massive game of truth of dare, then a destructive game involving 300 people. I am SO excited. We haven't got past planning that yet, but inspiration will strike soon enough, I'm sure.

I stood at the top of the steps in the Entrance Hall, surveying the students as they came in for breakfast. Cassidy and I have decided to wait to implement our prank till the Great Hall is the fullest. Being a Sunday, it was taking a while.

Not that it mattered all that much to us, really. We've both been up since 5:30 getting our prank ready. The games have officially started, and we've seen a fair few pranks already, though none to rival ours.

One girl managed to turn all the 4th year Hufflepuff's hair pink, which I quite enjoyed. At exactly 6 AM, I walked right into a pond conjured outside the Great Hall. A group of Ravenclaw's were behind that one, but I wasn't too impressed. I've heard the stories of Uncle George's days at Hogwarts, and he created a swamp that filled up an entire floor. This pond was nowhere near as impressive.

My personal favourite this morning, however, was a prank on the Slytherins (I always love these ones). This prank was in fact devised by none other than my cousin Lucy, who shared the Weasel Pot wealth of pranking knowledge and experience.

Honestly, I don't think I'll ever be able to forget the image of every single Slytherin walking out of the dungeon corridor, completely coloured in yellow body paint, with bright blue hair, and all their clothes dyed red. I think Luce was going to house unity, representing Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor in her prank. I must say, I was very impressed. Clearly she's been picking up tips all these years.

Derrick's face had been the funniest. He looked fit to murder someone, and so far I've spent a solid half an hour taunting him and Mina about their new 'makeovers'. Ah, teasing the Slytherins. I'm going to miss this next year.

Derrick and I were still maintaining the stony silence we had established in our detentions earlier in the week. I was quite happy with the 'let's forget it ever happened' policy, so I wasn't going to question it.

A few stragglers from Hufflepuff pushed past me, on their way to breakfast, and I walked in after them, the signal to Cassidy that almost everyone is present, and that it is time to start our prankapooluza.

Yes, I did just make up a word. I do that often.

Walking into the Great Hall was…interesting. Quite a few people are currently sporting interestingly coloured hair, extra body parts that weren't present this morning, or formations of acne on their foreheads. The teachers can't seem to decide what to think, and are, mostly, ignoring it. Professor Dayle's the only one who seems slightly concerned, currently in a heated discussion with Headmaster Herrick, who seems to be one step away from rolling his eyes in boredom. What can I say? He likes our pranks, apparently they 'brighten up his day'.

Yeah, that confused me when he told me that, too. He's an odd Professor, that one.

I look up, catching Cassidy's eye, and we grin at each other. It's on!

I quickly dive onto the nearest bench, narrowly avoiding the incoming mass of Crups. Over 200 Crups pour into the Hall, tearing up and down the aisles. I was looking directly at Dayle, and her reaction was priceless. She screamed, and jumped up on the staff table.

Made my day.

Then, the second phase started. Fireworks started going off, each placed at strategic intervals on each of the house tables, concealed by plates, goblets and in some instances, table cloths.

In the chaos of Crups, whizzing dragons and exploding stars, it was hard to discern the next phase of our mega-prank.

The teachers, all trying to command order of some sort, were all now standing up, attempting to get rid of the fireworks (which wasn't working, I'd used Uncle George's ones, so all they were doing was multiplying them...fantastic!). In unison, Cassidy and I pointed our wands at the staff table, creating a blue mist that flew over the teachers, tinging everything it touched blue. That was a new spell I'd learnt off George, similar to Muggle spray-paint.

So, with blue teachers, fireworks bouncing around our heads, Crups running around our feet, Dayle still on top of the table (blue now, of course) and screaming/laughing hordes of students, what more could we do?

Well, let's see.

In the next minute, I saw every single person who reached for a goblet have their hand turn into a flower (again, courtesy of Uncle George, I'd replaced all the regular goblets with trick ones on my journey to the kitchens this morning).

Those who tried to leave, found themselves, thanks to Cassidy guarding the door, covered in purple and pink spray paint, similar to the teachers.

All the Gryffindor's found hats, sporting a moving and roaring lion atop them, perched on their heads thanks to my mass conjuring spell (I was a bit worried I wouldn't pull that one off, but I managed, thank Merlin). The Ravenclaws were treated to the fury of the Hogwart's owls, which were swarming them. Little did we know, Cassidy had snuck into their dorm (Merlin knows how she got the password) and placed owl treats in every single Ravenclaw's cloak. Genius, I know.

The Hufflepuff's didn't get it to bad; they all just found their cutlery sticking to their hands once they'd touched it. Sticking charms are very, very useful, I tell you.

By this time, the teacher's were starting to get control. I think they've figured out Cassidy and I are behind it, but we resolutely continue on, with only the colourful, courtesy of Lucy, Slytherin's left.

Because we were running out of time, I simply charmed all their plates to hit them repeatedly over the heads, and Cassidy charmed their bags to float off out of the hall without them.

So, all in all, we had a pink, purple and blue coloured mass of people, as well as some multicoloured Slytherin's, fighting of owls, cutlery, plates and goblets turned flowers, some sporting lion hats, as well as the 200 Crups running through it all, and the fireworks whizzing around and creating loud, completely unnecessary banging noises. Essentially, complete chaos.

The teachers were trying to stop it, and they succeeded in some small instances. However, they were all still blue, and only a few owls had left, and some plates were back to sitting on the table rather than attacking the Slytherins (shame).

Cassidy and I saw a few approaching us, and groaned. There is no way we're going to escape punishment for this. We have completley interrupted breakfast, but it was worth it. Dayle is still dancing on top of the table, screaming at the Crups.

As Cassidy and I were escorted to Herrick's office, I couldn't keep the smirk off my face. That was bloody brilliant!

Once we were in Herrick's office, we had to wait for him to actually arrive. I'm incredibly pleased to say it took him a whole half hour to stop the chaos in the Great Hall, and get to actually reprimanding us. Unfortunately, he brought Dayle with him, as she _was_ head of Gryffindor. Damn.

Dayle started screeching at us the minute she walked through the door. I think she demanded 100 detentions each, a 1000 point deduction, each, from Gryffindor, our explusion and a complete ban on all pranks, as well as Crups, for the rest of the year.

Thankfully, Herrick wasn't listening to her.

"Look, Miss Potter and Miss Japes, whilst I can not deny that your antics this morning were highly amusing, they were also quite dangerous and distruptive. So, I must punish you accordingly. You are both banned from Hogsmeade weekends for the rest of the year, and will have 100 points deducted, each, from Gryffindor."

We both stared at him. That was a severe punishment, for him. True, we didn't actually get any detentions, which I thought was pretty damn cool, and we could easily sneak into Hogsmeade (I was going to have to, to make my date with Brendt). As for the 200 point (in total) deduction? Well, hopefully we'd make up for it in the Quidditch matches. So, not too bad, really.

Herrick marched out of his office, us and Dayle following. He departed to head back to the Great Hall, leaving us alone with Dayle. Not a good move.

"You girls have no idea what you've got yourselves into." Dayle hissed at us.

"I will make sure you are punished for this, you cannot get away with blatantly breaking the rules. It's despicable! If you step one _toe_ out of line, I'll make sure you both get expelled. I will be watching you."

With that slightly cliched, but nevertheless effective ending, Dayle turned on her heel and stormed off.

Cassidy and I looked at each other. Our prank sort of backfired, having seen Dayle's reaction. Having a Professor monitoring our every move was _not_ in our plans, and it would make the games so much harder to pull off, not to mention sneaking into Hogsmeade and hosting parties.

Also, I had no doubt that Dayle would find a way to blame every single prank that occurred on us. I was sure of it, and unfortunately that met we were dealing with the threat of explusion. Yeah, we linked to push the boundaries a lot, but we never went so far as to get expelled.

There's no way I'm going to let one teacher ruin my seventh year. Dayle's going down.

**A/N: Tell me what you think! Did you like the mega-prank? Did it not fulfill your expectations? **

**Is Dayle confusing you? Just like to say, she has an ulterior motive, like pretty much everyone in this story. So, see if you can guess it!**


	6. Just A Friend

**Chapter 6 ****–**** Just A Friend**

**A/N ****–**** updated, thanks to **hideyowifehideyokids **for pointing out that it is Amber, not Rowena, who is dating Ewan. Oops!**

The next week was torture. Cassidy and I were super careful to make sure we had witnesses with us at all times, because Dayle was going out of her way to blame all the pranks on us. However, the week of the first game ended with no further punishment for us, and Lucy was declared the winner of the first game.

The next few weeks passed in a blur, and with the ever approaching Quidditch match against Gryffindor, I'm now scheduling even more practices. Daniel's devoting his spare time to snooping for information on the new referee; he's convinced it will help us win the match.

I, however, couldn't care less. All I want to do is beat Derrick.

Brendt and I have spent a lot of time together the last few weeks, and I've discovered I actually like him a lot. He's not really what you'd class as 'hot', more of a 'cute', but he's a genuinely nice guy. I might actually consider dating him after this Hogsmeade trip.

It's always awkward when someone asks you to Hogsmeade ages before the actual weekend, because you're not really sure how to act around them. I mean, you're not 'dating', but you've both recognized that it could happen; the date just hasn't arrived yet. So, the two of us decided the weeks were a time to become friends, and we have.

As for the games, Cassidy and I are all set to release the next game at the start of November, and it will take action in the last few weeks of the term. We also have one prepared for the holiday period, which should be epic if it works.

Though, I'm not focusing on any of that today. Today was Halloween, and the Hogsmeade weekend. Tonight was the annual Halloween Feast, followed by the Halloween party, thrown by none other than Cassidy and myself, in the Room of Requirement. If things go well with Brendt today, I'm hoping I'll be his date.

If he takes me to Madame Puddifoot's, though, I'll stomp on his foot and storm off, no matter how good the rest of the day is. I just _hate_ that place.

As we walk down to Hogsmeade, all rugged up for the late October chill, I can't help but think how lucky I am. Brendt's a nice guy, pretty much the opposite of the few snogs I've had at parties. If he becomes my first official boyfriend, I won't complain. True, we don't really 'spark' but that will come with time, surely. As long as a certain past snog doesn't come and try to screw up my life, anyway.

"So, where do you want to go?" He asks, his hand gently clasping mine through our gloves.

"Um…" I say, unable to think of any suitable place.

"How about we hit Honeydukes, then head to the Three Broomsticks and see who's there?" He suggests, and I nod in agreement.

So, the day proceeds as planned. It's perfectly nice, and he's a perfect gentleman, holding open doors and purchasing my sweets for me. We see Amber and Ewan at the Three Broomsticks, my first sighting of the couple together.

We join them for lunch, and Amber and I quickly excuse ourselves to the bathroom for an essential rundown on our respective dates.

"So, that's Ewan, hey?" I ask, winking at her in the mirror. Ewan's pretty cute, I guess, but I've never really noticed him around before. He really lives up to the nickname I thought up, Mr Shy and Quiet.

"Yeah." Amber smiles girlishly, completely out of character for her.

I raise my eyebrows at this.

"You really like him, don't you?" I say, reapplying my lip gloss.

She nods, smiling slightly into the mirror.

"How's yours going?" She asks, probably to divert the attention from herself.

"Good, I think. I don't really have anything to compare it to. He's been really nice, and we're getting along." I turn to her, having finished reapplying my makeup and fixing my hair.

"You going to the party with him?" She asks as we return to the table.

I shrug by way of answer as we rejoin the boys, and the conversation turns to Quidditch.

We spend the rest of the day on our unplanned double date, and all four of us end up heading back to the castle together for the Halloween feast.

With the usual floating jack-o-lanterns, us four sat down and ate our fill.

Most of the 5th, 6th and 7th years only made brief appearances at dinner, and quite a few didn't come at all. For us students, that was the telltale sign that a party was planned for tonight. The teachers remain clueless, however.

After half an hour or so, full up on treacle tart, we made our way to Gryffindor Tower, Amber hugging Ewan goodbye at the 4th floor as he headed to Ravenclaw Tower. Upon entering the common room, Amber and I are all but attacked by Cass and Row.

"What took you so long?" Cass screeches at us, dragging both of us up the stairs.

"We have to get ready for tonight!" Row adds, though much more subtlely than Cassidy.

Amber and I turn, look at each other, roll our eyes, and shrug.

There's no point arguing with them. Row and Cass drag Amber upstairs, leaving me to say goodbye to Brendt.

"So, I'll see you in a few hours then." I say, smiling at him.

"I guess." He says, smiling back.

Neither of us could think of something else to say, so enter the awkward silence.

"Um…" I say, just to break the silence.

"I had a really good time today." Brendt blurts, almost like he's been trying to figure out how to tell me that all afternoon.

Actually, he probably has.

"Me too." I say, my smile widening.

"So, I'll see you at the party tonight? As my date?" Brendt asks.

I have a feeling this is the 'are we dating' conversation. One particular conversation I'm not at all familiar with.

"I guess…" I say, trailing off awkwardly.

This whole situation is just awkward, really.

"Okay. Bye!" Brendt says, rather lamely, and heads up the stairs to his dormitory.

I stare after him, completely confused. Did that me he wants to date me? Or does he only want to date me for tonight? What the hell?

I head up the stairs, shaking my head. Boys are confusing.

Unfortunately, girls aren't, at least when it comes to parties. Upon entering my dormitory, I'm attacked by Cass, as I'm in dire need of a makerover, apparently. Something about having to look pretty for my 'date'. Date/potential boyfriend.

So, the next portion of the day begins, a torturous process called 'getting ready', involving shavers, eye-brow tweezers, mascara, eyeliner, foundation, a shower each, Sleak-Eazy's entire range of hair products, Uncle George's entire range of hair products AND make up products, 4 different dresses, 16 different pairs of shows, 12 of which were rejected, 5 different cases of jewellery and, for the final touch, a swig of firewhisky each to get the party started.

It was madness, like always. Amber and I also hated every minute of it. It's funny that the two of us are the only ones in an actual relationship, seeing as we are the least girly of our group. Cassidy's a flirt; Rowena's a typical nice girl, the girl next door. Verity's slightly less vain, preferring to get the grades she needs to be a Healer, or whatever it is she wants to aspire to this week, but she still has more of an appreciation for fashion than I do. She also has fabulous clothes from her time in America, and her frequent trips back there. Of course, none of us have anything on Cassidy, part-Veela, Metamorphagus and whose mother used to be a model.

Sigh.

Anyway, we all eventually make it down to the common room, Dissolusion ourselves and head off to the party half an hour before it's traditionally due to start (usually around eleven, which is, of course, well after curfew).

Sneaking through the corridors is always entertaining, especially on nights like this. You see, we dissolusioned ourselves, and we have the Marauder's Map, and we've got the Cloak in case of an emergency (granted, it is stuck in Amber's bag, shrunk, so I doubt it'll be much help, but you know, we still have it, _if_ we needed it). So, basically we won't ever get caught, we're way to smart for that.

The really entertaining thing is watching all the other students sneaking out. It's generally not as chaotic as this, with pretty much every student in the upper 3 years attending our party. As we walk the corridors, we see 2 groups of Ravenclaws, one very large group of Hufflepuffs (how they expect to hide from teachers I have no idea), and 15 pairs of Slytherins (they're always the smart ones, going in pairs, with someone sneaking to each corner and all. There's a reason why they're in Slytherin).

The best part is that none of them can see us, so we get to listen to them stress about being caught, and sometimes even make deliberate noises just to scare them. I know, it's juvenile. I don't care.

After some priceless entertainment, involving a suit of armor, four very scared Ravenclaws, and a cat-like miaow (courtesy of Rowena), we arrive at the Room of Requirement.

And I get immediately swamped by random family members.

Oh, yeah, forgot to mention; all my cousins/brothers like to show up at occasional parties, to reminicise on their own days at dear Hoggywarts. They bring a few friends often, so there's usually about 20 or so people in the 18-22 age bracket. Weird, I know.

Plus, I think Al and James want to keep an eye on me. Shame that the _one_ party when something did actually happen was the one where none of my older cousins (cept Roxy, she doesn't really count, though) were present.

Sucks for them.

"Lily!" Roxy screams, practically knocking me to the floor with the sheer force of her hug.

Roxy's the crazy one in the family.

Okay, we're all crazy, but she's the loud, won't stop talking, crazy one.

She's also completely gorgeous, inheriting slightly tanned skin from her mother, along with her dark hair, and brown eyes from both her parents. Her sense of humor and her love of adventure are all Uncle George, though.

We're quite close, as she only graduated last year. We used to team up in the games during the summer, and we were pretty much unbeatable. That is, until it was only the two of us left with a chance of winning, and we had to target each other.

"Rox!" I say with as much, if not more enthusiasm.

Roxy was _possibly_ my favourite cousin, close to Luce, anyway. The three of us, being the youngest girls, always banded together to stick up for ourselves.

Turns out that we have more guts than either Rose or Victoire, though Dom comes pretty close in the defensive retorts department.

Roxy and I are soon joined by Lucy, who's the year below us. Lucy's pretty cool, especially since she's Uncle Percy's kid. Her sister Molly is…well, a stuck-up bitch, basically.

Thank god we only have one of those in the family.

A fair few of my other cousins are here, including both James and Al, Rose (who also brought Scorpius), Dom (who brought some guy I don't know with her…hmm) and Fred. Of course, Louis is here with his other 6th year Ravenclaw friends. Lorcan and Lysander Scamander are here too.

Thankfully, Molly didn't come. Phew. She never has, but I'm just waiting for the day when she shows up, armed with a howler from Mum and Professor Longbottom forcing us all to abandon our party.

Yeah, Molly would totally do that. No one else in the family would rat out a Hogwarts party, but she would. That's why she was generally left out of the loop when she was at school.

The Slytherin's are also here, Derrick and Mina chief among them. Well, I'll be avoiding _them_ all night, per usual.

"Lily!" Daniel screams at me from across the room.

Right…

He's drunk, then.

"Who's that?" Roxy asks me, as the two of us and Luce make our way over to the drinks.

"Oh, just Dan. He's on the Quidditch team with me, Chaser." I reply, pouring the three of us a firewhisky.

"He's cute." Roxy says, eying him over her drink.

I nudge her.

"No way, Rox. He's my friend, plus he's a 'snog 'em and leave 'em' type."

I roll my eyes at Roxy, who is 'subtley' checking out Daniel over her cup.

"No, Lil," She says, laughing, "I don't want to snog him. I think _you _should."

She grins at me.

I stare at her, shocked.

"He's only a friend! Plus, Al and James would kill me, or, more likely, kill him."

Roxy snorts, and the conversation turns to less awkward subjects.

Dan and I have only ever been friends, though I think he might've had a thing for me back in 5th year. The thought of snogging him…it's too weird. Sure, he's attractive, but I just don't see him like that.

Really, I don't.

To divert my attention from Dan, I scan the room.

Unfortunately for me, Derrick happens to be looking at me. What is he doing? Stalking me?

I glare at him, turning away.

"Who's _that_?" Roxy asks again, pointing at Derrick in a not-so-covert way.

"Rox!" I hiss at her, pulling her arm back.

Lucy sniggers at me.

"Shut up." I throw at her, crossing my arms over my chest.

"That's Mace Derrick, Slytherin Seeker." Lucy supplies, smiling smugly at me.

I glare at her in response. She's_ such _a lovely cousin.

"Yeah, and I hate him." I grunted.

Roxy looks over at him, then back at me, her eyebrows raised.

"Well, he's staring at you."

I groan, and steer the three of us out of the Slytherins' eye sight.

Roxy's still looking at me weirdly, so I find the need to defend myself again.

"No, Rox, I don't like him, either." I say, exasperated.

He's just..attractive. And a good snog.

A really, really-

I stop my self there. No need to take a trip down memory lane. I quickly down some more firewhisky, and set off to find my date for the evening.

"Brendt!" I say, grinning at him.

"Hey." He says, hugging me.

I can practically feel Roxy's eyebrow-raised glare on my neck, so I reluctantly turn around.

"Rox, Luce, this is Brendt…"

I trail off. What else should I say? Was he my boyfriend? Or just my date/potential boyfriend?

Well, no time like the present.

I turn to Brendt, completely ignoring the rational part of my brain that says I shouldn't really be having this conversation here, in full view of the majority of Hogwarts 5th, 6th and 7th years. Plus half of my family.

"Um, Brendt, are you my boyfriend now?" I ask bluntly.

The reactions were interesting. Brendt gapes at me, looking shocked, Lucy snorts into her drink, Roxy bursts out laughing, most likely at me, and I just sit their, waiting.

"Brendt?" I ask, slightly worried because he's just staring at me, mouth wide open.

"Okay." He says, grinning like an idiot.

Well, I guess that settles it then.

"As I was saying, this is Brendt. My _boyfriend_." I grin triumphantly at my cousins.

For the next hour, maybe two, I spend my time with Brendt's arm around my waist, drinking 4, possibly 5 firewhiskys (I kinda lost count. Whoops).

At some point, Cass heads over to find me.

"Cassidy!" I say, breaking out of Brendt's grasp to greet my friend.

"How are ya?" I say, slinging my arm around her shoulder.

"Wanna dance?" Cass yells in my ear.

I nod enthusiastically, and we head out to join the mass of moving bodies.

Another few hours pass, along with some more firewhiskys. Also some punch, which apparently has been spiked with firewhisky, if Louis heard right. I had some, but couldn't taste any whisky.

Oh well.

"Brendt!" I call, spotting his blond head about 10 metres away.

"Hey, Lil." He says, his hand returning to my waist.

"Hi." I say, giggling in his face.

"You alright?" He asks, his concerned face swimming in and out of my vision.

"Yeah!" I reply, "Why wouldn't –"

I hiccup, and nearly fall over in the process.

"Whoops." I say, giggling again.

I think Brendt was shaking his head at me, but everything sort of looks fuzzy….

Oooo, I can see Al, but he looks like he as an afro….the fuzziness is weird.

Oh, look it's Amber! Sucking face with Ewan…eww…..ewwwwwan….

I giggle again.

"Uh, Lil, I think you should go rest….James and Al wouldn't like to see you like this…." Brendt says, pulling me out of the centre of things, off into some quiet space that the room has probably created itself. It does that.

I wonder if it would create a bubble bath for me?

Bubbles….

"Wait…" I tried to concentrate on what Brendt (my boyfriend! Yay for me!) was saying.

"Like what? You said Al and Jameypoo wouldn't want to see me like this? Like whattt?" I say, my voice rising about 2 octaves in pitch.

I think Brendt's shaking his head again.

Suddenly, the room goes white.

It hurts. And it spins.

"Oww…" I groan, clutching my head.

"Come on, Lil." Brendt leads me on, past the weird whiteness.

"Why is it white?" I ask, still clutching my head, my eyes tight shut.

"Lil, that was the bathroom."

"There's a bathroom in the room of requirement? That's weird." I start giggling again.

Brendt sighs, and drags me into a dark corner.

Ah, no more bright light.

Better.

Costume time!

Somehow, I get up out of my dark corner, and stumble over to the magically appearing pile of costumes.

It's tradition on the Halloween party that no one comes in costume, but leaves in one instead. The room provides them, it's pretty awesome.

"Ow!" I shriek, having fallen over a table.

Seriously, who put a table there?

"Lily?"

I hear Roxy. Come on, legs, head towards Roxy.

"Rox!" I say, stumbling into her arms.

"Nice costume." I say, looking her up and down.

Roxy must have got in first to the costume pile, cause she got a princess dress. Not fair, I always wanted to be the princess.

Spose I could just transfigure what I'm wearing into a princess dress.

Yeah, let's do that.

Grabbing my wand, I twirl it a few times, and voila, I'm now wearing a floor length ball gown.

It's also rainbow coloured. Woops. Kinda looks cool, though. I quickly add a tiara (which looked like it was made out of white chocolate….oh well. Can't really expect too much when you're drunk) and head off to show off my amazing, awesome costume.

"Jamie! Al-pop!" I call, seeing my brothers a few metres away from me.

"Uh, Lil, what are you wearing?" Al's face swims in front of mine, and I grin at him.

"It's a princess costume!" I say, spinning around to show it off.

Or attempting to, anyway. I actually ended up falling on top of James.

Whoopsie.

"Oh, look it's all three of the Potters. Just excuse me while I go throw up." Mina was around.

I couldn't quite figure out _where_ she was, but that was definitely her voice. Damn it, if only the room would stop spinning for just a second…

"God, look at that dress! Looks like one of the potions exploded on it." Mina sneered at me, and I caught sight of her surrounded by her usual posse as she stalked past me.

I stuck my tongue out at her, childish as hell.

"Stupid Slytherin." I said, but it probably came out more like 'stubid sftherin'.

"All Slytherin's are shit." James added, glaring at Mina as she sauntered off.

"Hey!" Al cut in, indignant. "I was a Slytherin!"

"So?" James said, smirking at his little brother.

I rolled my eyes, preparing myself for a typical brotherly fight. God knows I've witnessed enough of them.

"Ewww!" I squeal, my vision clearing enough so that I could see Rose swapping saliva with Malfoy.

Like I said, ew.

James and Al growled simultaneously as they caught sight of them, all traces of anger gone.

"I hate anyone who snogs our relatives." James grunts.

"He's my best mate, but I have to agree here, brother dearest." Al adds.

I just roll my eyes and try not to fall over, as my visions gone all funny again. Having everything around you spin is fun for a while, but I'm kinda over it now.

"D'ya guys just hate anyone who snogs one of us then?" I ask, gripping onto a chair to stay upright.

"Yep." They say, in unison too. Wow, I bet they practiced that.

"Even Teddy?" I ask, though I have no idea where that thought came from.

Guess it just popped into my head. Popped….thats a funny sounding word…its one of those words…where they sound like the word….you know, there's a name for them…

Yeah, whatever. I don't remember.

"Well, Ted's _technically_ family." Al says, always the logical one.

"But any public displays of affection, and he'll find himself hexed quicker than he can say Kneazle." James says.

Haha, Kneazle, another funny word. I start laughing, ultimately spilling my drink all over my rainbow coloured princess dress.

"Whoops." I say, looking down at the stain.

Both my brothers roll their eyes. Simultaneously. I bet they practice that too.

"Hey, Lil."

I look up, and see Dan leaning over me. Clearly drunk.

But then, who am I to drunk? I've been slumped on this couch for the past hour, drinking I'm not sure how many firewhiskies. I even had some of the punch.

"Hey, Dan." I say, patting the spot next to me.

The room's dark now, but the party is by no means over. We just turned off the lights to create a spooky atmosphere, being as it's Halloween and all.

Dan looked me up and down.

"Nice costume."

I grinned back at him, taking in his own attire, a pirate outfit complete with a sword. Cool.

"You too."

We sat like that for a while, just watching the people dance, though it was way to dark to tell who was who. All you could see was the dark shapes of many drunk people. Occasionally someone would fall over, which was entertaining.

Spose I can't talk though, I'll have like twenty bruises tomorrow from walking into things.

I turn back to look at Dan, and he's staring at me, his eyes looking all intense.

That's weird, he must be drunker than I thought. Drunker? More drunk?

Eh, whatever.

That was when it happened. The stupid moment of the night.

I think they should give me a prize, I really do. As long as it's not another white chocolate crown.

His mouth met mine, tasting like alcohol. I froze, completely stunned, then my fuzzy brain kicked in, shoving him off me, and storming out of the room.

Or at least attempting to. In reality, I stumbled on a chair, tripped over it, and ended up passing out of the floor.

So much for my dramatic exit.


	7. And I Hate You

**Chapter 7 ****–**** And I Hate You**

I opened my eyes, immediately closing them as my head started to pound.

I couldn't quite remember what had happened last night, but clearly I had been drunk. Which was probably why I was lying on the floor of the Room of Requirement on a Sunday, wearing a rainbow coloured dress and with a pile of melted white chocolate on top of my head.

Well, this is possibly the weirdest situation I've ever woken up in.

I wondered what the time was, and the room, helpful as ever, quickly conjured a clock on the wall in my line of sight.

"Shit!"

It was bloody 4 o'clock in the afternoon!

I was supposed to have quidditch practice in…half an hour!

Oh, Merlin.

The game was a week away too. Not that we weren't going to kick some Slytherin arse, but you know, I still like to have practices.

Reluctantly, I stand up, vanishing the gooey mess on top of my head and transforming my dress back into it's original state.

Everything else around me is completely spotless, either someone cleaned up (highly unlikely), or the room felt the need to be tidy.

God, I really love this room sometimes. It makes throwing parties that much easier.

I make it to Gryffindor Tower by 4:15, which I think is pretty good going since every single glare from the sun makes me clutch my head in pain.

Seriously, whoever invented the sun really needed to consult with the person who created alcohol; the two just don't mix.

"Lily!"

OW!

Someone was calling my name. I was in the corridor leading to the Fat Lady, so it was possibly a Gryffindor. And a girl.

"Hey, Luce. Pol."

I smiled weakly at one of my two favourite cousins, who had huge dark marks under her eyes, a product of last night, and her best friend, a bubbly blonde called Pollyanna.

"Where've you been? Cass and Brendt were looking for you; they both seem to think you've disappeared off the face of the earth into the land of a hangover." Luce said, smirking at me.

"Well, they're right. The sun hurts."

With that elegant statement, I pushed past them into the common room, and proceeded to have a ultra-quick shower (it really was, I think I should get a medal or something), locate my bottle of hangover potion, have some, avoid Cassidy who wanted to talk about the games, put on my Quidditch robes, grab my broom (which was actually quite hard to find since I'd only used it two days ago…odd, I have no idea how the entire collection of Row's socks ended up on top of it, nor all of Amber's books. ) and head out to the pitch.

I was only 5 minutes late, too. Impressive, if I might say so myself.

"Alright, guys, let's start with some simple drills." I yell to the pitch, my back turned to them as I release the bludgers, then the quaffle from the case.

I leave the snitch in for the moment, as I usually start with the other members of my team, and once they're all going well, I start my own drills. By the time I turn around, Hugo is flying between the hoops, his customary warm up drill involving many loops and flips. Kelsey, Callum and Dan are racing each other up and down the pitch, and I quickly chuck the Quaffle to them, so they can start some passing drills. My beaters, Amber and her twin, Max, stop racing each other around the stands, and beat a Bludger between them once one comes rocketing their way.

I stay firmly on the ground, still not recovered from the previous night. Sure, my hangover's gone, but I have absolutely no idea what happened or how I ended up on the floor of the Room of Requirement. Sadly, not the first night that I don't remember.

After about twenty minutes of drills, I gather the team together. We start the standard exercise, with two of our chasers, in this case Kelsey and Callum, pretending to be on the 'opposing' team, and attempting to shoot in the goals past Hugo. One beater was on each 'team', with Dan, the remaining chaser, playing defense against Kelsey and Callum, as he is on the same 'team' as Hugo and Max.

I referee, per usual. The game gets underway, with some impressive saves from Hugo and a blood nose due to Amber's bludger towards her brother. I was in the middle of scrutinizing Daniel as he tried to block Kelsey when my memories came flooding back.

I landed with a thud on the ground, gasping as the memories came to me.

No, no, no. I did NOT do that. There is no way that I'm that stupid.

I hear Amber call out to me, presumably worried that I suddenly decided to land. When she lands, I pull her aside.

"Um, I need to go. Just keep the game going, okay? If I'm not back, call the end of practice in an hour." I whisper in my friend's ear, taking off for the change rooms at a run as she mounts her broom and flies back up to the puzzled team.

Once in the change room, I lean my head against the wall, tempted to bang it against the tile.

What the hell was I thinking? I've been going out with Brendt for one entire day, and I've already managed to drunkedly snog someone else. Granted, he came to _me_, but it still happened.

Merlin, I'm an idiot.

Not to mention Mace, and the weird feelings there. And I still haven't told my actual boyfriend any of this.

God, I'm turning into a slutty bitch just like Mina.

Brendt. I need to figure out whether or not to tell him. Last night didn't mean anything, I'm sure of that. It was just a drunken mistake, and I pushed him off me anyway. Surely I don't need to rock my relationship over something that insignificant?

As for Derrick, well, I didn't know what was happening there. He's a complete jerk, and I intend to beat him next week in Quidditch. That's really all the general public needs to know.

What I really need to do is talk to Cassidy. She'll know what I should say, and what I shouldn't. After all, she has a hell of a lot more experience in these matters than I do.

So, I think we've established that I'm a coward who likes to run away from her problems.

It's been a nearly a week since the party, and I haven't gotten any closer to telling Brendt, nor anyone else, what happened.

I've been avoiding Dan all week, which is kinda awkward with the Quidditch game tomorrow and all. I think he's realised that it was all a mistake though, as he hasn't tried to corner me and repeat the process.

As for Derrick, we've been shooting hexes at each other as is typical for opposing Quidditch captains in the lead up to a game. So, nothing out of the ordinary there. At all. I'm convinced that whatever weird feelings I may have had for him are completely gone, and I now see him for what he really is. A complete jerk, a man-whore, and a crap Quidditch player who I am going to smash come to game tomorrow.

So, basically just another smily Slytherin.

"So, Lil, we all set for the game in a few weeks?" Cassidy asks me from her perch on her bed.

The five of us (Row, Ver, Amber, Cass and I) were having our 'game' meeting in our dorm, something we did several times a week. We refused to let anyone else come, and it was usually just me and Cass planning what we were going to do for the next game.

We'd already determined this one, on the 2nd Hogsmeade weekend, was a massive game of truth or dare. The only catch was figuring out how to monitor the truths and dares, and how to judge them. We couldn't just invite all 300 participants into the Room of Requirement and sit in a circle like we used to do when we were younger. For one, that was lame, and two, it was strategically impossible.

"What about using magic coins?" Row asks, lying on her stomach on her own bed.

"Won't work. They deliver message, but to all coins, not just a single one." Verity says, sounding like a text book per usual.

"We could just have them write down their truths/dares on a piece of paper, charmed so that no one other than us can read it." I say, studying my nails to see if there are any chips in my nailpolish. Vain, I know.

"It's a possibility." Cassidy says, standing up and striding across the room to her closet. "However, I think we need something much more…impressive."

She turned her head to face us, grinning, as she threw open her cupboard doors.

"I think that we should come up with some truth questions, and some dares, and let the contestants pull them out of the hat. Of course, we'll have two separate hats, so they can choose truth or dare." Cassidy says, whilst rifling through her massive closet for God knows what.

We all contemplate this. Sure, coming up with that many dares and questions could take ages, but who needs sleep?

"I've done about a 100 truth questions already, and I thought you, Lil, would have some dares. We can always owl your cousins to pitch in, I bet they'll be a _great_ help." Cassidy say, grinning madly as she clutches a pair of bright blue boots.

And that was how we spent the rest of the night coming up with, for me and Amber, dares, and the other, truth questions. I enlisted James and Fred via owl, and they submitted about 50 of each later that night.

The problem of my antics last Saturday was momentarily gone from my mind. I didn't really see the point in sharing with everyone. I didn't think it was a big deal, not really.

We only stopped our brainstorming when Amber pointed out that we have Quidditch tomorrow, so we should probably get some sleep.

It only occurred to me then that we would have to win by 200 points, including the 150 for catching the snitch, to make up the 200 points me and Cass lost by getting caught pranking the other week.

Oh, and we were banned from Hogsmeade.

Huh.

That didn't stop us from getting in last weekend with no problem.

I lay there, listening to the sounds of my roomates snoring (in Amber's case) and rolling over every few minutes (Rowena). I could hear Verity breathing to my right, so I knew she was asleep.

Cassidy, however, was silent, so I figured she was still awake.

"Hey, Cass?" I call into the darkness.

"Yeah?" She replies, and I see her shadowy form sit up in bed.

"We went to Hogsmeade last weekend…but we're banned." I said, confused.

She snorts. 

"I guess they forgot. It's happened before. Don't complain." She says, lying back down.

I consider that. It's true; we've managed to get out of punishment before because teacher's have 'forgotten'. I think being a Potter helps, actually.

They also probably knew we'd get into Hogsmeade anyway, so why bother trying to stop us?

Though they might be stricter next time, if the game of truth or dare gets as wild as we expect it to.

"Oh, Cass…" I say again, seizing the moment.

"What?" She says, rolling over to face me.

"Uh….Dan tried to hook up with me at the party last weekend." I say, waiting for her reaction.

There was a pause.

"So?" She replies. "He was probably drunk. I know you were."

And just like that, she brushes it off. That's why I love Cass, she sees the situation exactly as it is.

"So, I shouldn't tell Brendt?" I say in a whisper.

"No, not unless you want to freak him out." She says, rolling back over to the other side.

"'Night." She says, and falls silent.

Well, that answers my question. Brendt does not need to know that one of my friends got drunk and did something stupid. It just wasn't necessary.

Now, sleep time. I _do _have to be able to function in the morning.

"Potter! Get over here!"

"What do you want, Derrick?" I call back to my rival, who is yelling across the Great Hall at me.

"Meeting the new ref!" He calls back, smirking at me.

I jump up, aghast. I can't believe I've forgotten that we had a new referee! All the Quidditch captains were out in the Entrance Hall to meet him or her, so I quickly hurried out to join them.

"Nice of you to join us, Miss Potter." Professor Dayle said, her upper lip curling as she looked at me.

What the hell was she doing here?

Oh, right. She was head of Gryffindor. The Headmaster was here too, as were the other Heads of House. Professor Longbottom was also here, though I've no idea why. He's a family friend, but he finds it 'awkward' if we call him Neville at school.

So, we do it all the time.

I heard whispers from the Great Hall, turning to find my entire team clustered around the door, clearly speculating about the new referee. The other teams were there too, creating quite a crowd.

I saw Herrick roll his eyes at them, but like the awesome headmaster he is, didn't do anything about it.

Dayle glared at them, but she seems to be in a good mood this morning, and let is pass also.

So, we were standing in the Entrance Hall, Derrick and I having a glare-off, me stressed out about the game in…an hour (!) and the rest of our Quidditch teams in a whispering mass off to the side.

The ref better hurry up and get here or I'm going to hex someone. Probably Dayle, though hexing Derrick has its merits.

I just want to be on the pitch, whipping the Slytherin's arses. That'll be the high point of today.

Thankfully, the doors flew open just then, and a red-headed, slender ex-Quidditch player entered.

"Mum?" I exclaimed, gaping at my traitorous, secretive mother.

How the hell had she not mentioned this?

And who the hell let her be a ref? She's biased, she was a Gryffindor, and she's my MOTHER!

Derrick seems to be thinking along the same lines, because he starts saying all this to Herrick.

"Professor, you can't be serious! She's a biased Gryffindor!" He says, staring in disbelief at my mother.

For once, I agree with him. Sure, I love my mother, but I don't want her at _school_ with me. Much less referring my matches. If we win, people will think I'm getting special treatment. If we lose, which we WON'T, it'll be because she's too hard on me.

Geez, this sucks.

"Hi, Lily dear. You excited?" My mother comes up to me, and, in front of EVERYONE, hugs me!

Does she have no concept of embarassement?

"Mum!" I exclaim, pushing her off me.

She chuckles, and moves to greet Neville.

"Ginny. Wonderful to have you here." Neville says, giving my mother a brief hug.

I shudder. This is so weird.

Then a thought strikes me.

"Is Dad coming?" I ask fearfully, looking at my mother, but it was Professor Herrick who answered.

"Oh, no. Harry will do some lecturing for Defence later in the year, but he can't come to the games." He said, matter-of-factly.

"Oh, Lily, I'm only here for the Quidditch matches, by the way. So don't worry having me hanging around." My mother says, smiling warmly at me again.

Well, that's a relief, I guess. Except now all the Quidditch teams are laughing at me. Derrick's actually clutching his sides, pointing at my face.

Yeah, well, it probably has some stupid expression on it, but really, is it that funny?

I glare at him, though it doesn't shut him up. Sighing, I turn to my team.

"Let's go." I say, storming out the front doors and down to the pitch.

"I can't believe it! I totally said it would be Lily's mum!" Dan was saying to Callum and Kelsey behind me.

I continue on my stampede towards the Gryffindor change-rooms, ignoring Dan. Amber walks next to me, casting worried glances my way, but I'm getting pretty good at ignoring things these days.

"Alright, get changed. I'll do the pre-game pep talk in ten." I say, and head into the Captain's office, banging the door closed behind me.

I could hear them all, laughing, talking, stressing out. I tune it all out, going into my own little world like I do before every game.

"Alright guys! Who's ready for this game?" I call to the change room.

They all cheer around me, and we head out onto the pitch like we do every game, all laughing, cheering, whooping.

I'm about to step out, to the roar of the crowd, when a hand grabs my arm, holding me back.

"Lil, about the other night…"

I look up into the worried face of Dan.

"Look, Dan, it was a mistake. We were both drunk. It doesn't mean anything, you're one of my close friends, so let's just forget it, okay?" I smile at him, and walk out onto the pitch.

Game time.

"I want a fair game. I know you're Gryffindor, and you're Slytherin, but I think we can get through today without killing each other, okay?" My mum looks between Derrick and I, currently locked in another glare-off, and sighs.

"Lily?" She says, looking to me for a response.

"Sure, Mum, I'll try." I say, regretfully breaking the staring contest.

Derrick smirks at me, and we shake hands, as is traditional. I also have my fingers crushed, as is traditional.

With Mum's whistle, we kick off, and I hear Pollyanna, Lucy's friend and the Quidditch commentator, start doing her thing.

"And they're off! We have two very strong teams this year, under captains Potter and Derrick. Of course, Potter has the upper hand, retaining all the members from last year."

I grin at Pollyanna, while Derrick, and most of the Slytherins, flip her off.

"And Gryffindor has the Quaffle! Montrop to Wood, passes to Radon, tackled by Jackhert…and, oh damn it, Slytherin in possession." Pollyanna groans into the microphone.

I grimace towards the Slytherin currently holding the Quaffle, but quickly focus back in on searching for the Snitch. Derrick's doing the same, circling around the pitch like me, though he's on the other side of it at the moment.

"And a fabulous block by Weasley, there! Quidditch sure does run in the family!" Pollyanna earned a laugh from the crowd there.

I grin towards my cousin, guiding my broom up to circle higher up.

"And Gryffindor in possession. Montrop, Wood, Montrop….and she shoots….saved by Montague."

Wow, what a slow game. Five minutes in, and not a score. I guess the teams _were_ quite well matched.

Not that it'll matter when I get the Snitch. Derrick can eat my dust, for all I care.

"Hey, Potter, you getting distracted by my dashing good looks?" Derrick calls, bumping my shoulder with his as he passes me.

I glare at him, turning around and swooping over him, just missing his head.

"Nah, Derrick. It's you big head that's distracting me. What's your excuse? To busy staring at my arse?" I call after me, sniggering.

I look behind me, just in time to see him glare ferociousl y at me, before I hear the tell tale sound of a bludger approaching.

"Ah, crap." I quickly accelerate, doing a dive down the pitch as the bludger makes its pursuit.

Max, Amber's twin brother and our Beater, flies up behind and hits it away, hopefully towards Derrick. I grin at him, and continue to search for the Snitch.

"40-30 to Gryffindor!" Pollyanna calls.

7 goals? How did I miss that?

It was probably when Derrick was harrassing me.

Stupid git.

"Oh, look, what's this? Has Derrick seen the Snitch?" Pollyanna pauses, as practically the whole of Hogwarts holds its breath.

I flick my head, and see Derrick in a deep, fast dive towards the ground, about twenty metres from me. I quickly speed up, searching the ground in front of me for any sign of the Snitch.

I don't see it.

I look at Derrick, we're almost neck and neck. He's not looking at the fast approaching ground, he's looking at me.

Oh, shit. He's feinting.

He pulls up, as the ground looms in front of me.

I brace myself for the impact, pulling my broom up in a desperate attempt to _not_ hit the ground.

I close my eyes…..and nothing happens.

Peeking through my left eyelid, I see myself hovering about a handswidth from the ground.

THANK MERLIN!

It's always a good day when you manage to not die.

Unfortunately, Derrick's off again, and it looks like he's actually seen something again.

"Brilliant feint by Derrick, there. Oh, here comes Lily!" Pollyanna becomes suddenly cheerful again as I catch up to Derrick.

"Another score to Gryffindor, seems the Slytherin keeper needs to concentrate on his part of the game, not his captain's." Pollyanna laughs.

"80-30 to Gryffindor."

I smile smugly at Derrick.

"So, Derrick, wonder what it feels like to lose." I say, hitting his shoulder with mine.

"Wouldn't know. I expect you'll find out soon, though." He said, his breath tickling my neck.

Grimacing, I push my broom even faster, bending low over the handle. My vision narrows to that tiny, gold ball just in front of us.

That tiny gold ball that just changed direction.

"Shit!" I exclaim.

"Oh, mother-"

I fly off before I hear the rest of Derrick's curse, flipping upside down in the air to catch up to the Snitch as it loops back on itself.

My hand reaches out, inching closer to the gold ball. I can hear Derrick right behind me, but I ignore him.

Just a little bit further…

"YES!" I scream, touching down on the ground with little gold wings fluttering between my fingers.

"Gryffindor win! 230-30!" Pollyanna screams into the microphone, causing many to cover their ears.

My team lands around me, screaming, hugging and jumping.

"We won!"

"Oh my god, Lil, that was amazing! You flipped UPSIDE DOWN!"

"Congratulations, dear." My mother finds her way to me, smiling warmly.

I let her hug me, glad that she could see me in a game for once.

"Thanks, Mum." I say, smiling back at her.

She moves away, and I can see the Slytherin team, standing on the other side of the pitch, looking dejected.

Derrick looks up at me, and our eyes meet. He narrows his, a sneer appearing across his features.

"I hate you, Potter." He says, softly, so that I can't hear, but I still know what he's saying.

I mean, it's pretty hard to mis-lipread those words.

He flips me off, and turns and stalks into his own change rooms.

I turn around, rolling my eyes at typical Slytherin behaviour.

"And I hate you, too, Derrick." I whisper to myself, before Amber and Cassidy run up to me, jumping around like lunatics.


End file.
